NBC Cuts Down ‘The Cape’

The struggling superhero drama drops from 13 episodes to 10.

NBC’s "The Cape" is facing dire straights. And this time, it’s not from the horrifically bad writing or his rogues gallery of cheesy Batman-knockoffs.

According to a report on Deadline, NBC has cut three episodes from the first season of "The Cape," bringing the episode count from 13 to 10. This also means that there will be no resolution to the current storyline and production will cease immediately.

"The Cape" was created by Tom Wheeler and starred David Lyons as Vince Faraday, an honest cop who is framed by the masked killer Chess, aka Peter Fleming (James Frain). While Vince is thought to be dead by the city and his wife Dana (Jennifer Ferrin) and his son Trip (Ryan Wynott), he receives a strangely elastic costume and training from Max Malini (Keith David) and his Carnival of Crime.

As his son’s favorite superhero, The Cape, Vince fought imaginatively named villains like Scales (Vinnie Jones) and teamed up with a mysterious investigative blogger, Orwell (Summer Glau).

To put it charitably, the series was not good. It was also highly derivative of superhero tropes that went out of style back in the ’60s.

The premiere episode debuted to a respectable 8.5 million viewers, but the audience has been continuously abandoning the series in the intervening weeks. The most recent episode posted a series low, 5.34 million viewers.

Because of the series’ lack of traction and the cut in episodes, it is highly unlikely that "The Cape" will be renewed for a second season. The series is projected to finish its run on NBC later this month, paving the way for "The Event" to return next month.